Friday, August 10, 2012

White Pizza with Pesto and Veggies

This is another perfect recipe for Meatless Mondays - and one that is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Who doesn't love pizza? Crispy, crunchy crust with ooey gooey melted cheese... mmmmm...

I think I may be hungry. It's really a shame that we devoured this entire pizza and dashed any hopes of leftovers.

Produce stands everywhere are overflowing with amazing summer goodies right now. For the moment I've gotten the stone fruit obsession calmed, so now I'm on to things like summer squash. There may or may not be another zucchini recipe lurking on the horizon... You're on the edge of your seats now, aren't you?

Hubby declared this pizza "really yummy" and I've got to say I agree with him. This will definitely be joining our weekly rotation. One of the great things about pizza is that you can top it with pretty much whatever your little heart desires. It's a great way to use up some of the random unused veggies that tend to accumulate over the week.

Turn on your oven to the highest it will go (ours is 550) and preheat (with the pizza stone in) for about an hour. In the meantime, let the dough come to room temperature and chop the veggies.

Lightly dust a sheet of parchment with flour. Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin until it's about 1/4" thick. Spread pesto evenly across the dough. Top with shredded cheese, chopped veggies and a couple turns of fresh cracked black pepper. Drizzle whole pizza with a couple spoonfuls of garlic oil. Bake for approx 8 minutes, or until cheese is brown and bubbly and crust is crisp. Drizzle a tad more garlic oil over the top and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

For the garlic oil...
Pour about a cup of extra virgin olive oil into a jar and toss in several peeled garlic cloves. Let sit for a couple days so the garlic flavor infuses the oil. Use on pastas, pizzas, sandwiches, etc.